Doha: HE Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Qatar Museums (QM), Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, has emphasized that the State of Qatar places emphasis on the Global South and on empowering talents and innovators in the region, recognizing them as an integral part of it. Speaking in a panel discussion titled "Humanity's Next Chapter: Innovation and Impact from the Global South", as part of the Doha Forum 2025 deliberations, which opened Saturday, Her Excellency highlighted that when Qatar started building its museums and artistic collections, it realized that there had been narrow spaces before its talents to grow and be entangled with these artworks.
According to Qatar News Agency, the Doha Film Institute (DFI) had been established, and M7 had been launched, as a dynamic incubator for design, fashion, and technology, alongside repurposed Liwan, Qatar's first girls' school, into cutting-edge design studios and laboratories, HE Sheikha Al Mayassa noted. Sheikha Al Mayassa highlighted that Africa abounds with talents, but it is eclipsed from the world due to the poor essential facilities there. She indicated that having these kinds of facilities in place to collaborate and operate in unison with various African nations would allow projecting African talents more broadly to the world.
Underscoring the importance of culture and a neutral space open to all folks to engage and grow, HE Sheikha Al Mayassa stressed that innovative culture and economy form a soft power since both lead to economic transformation. Culture unites community members and their identity and promotes their belief in their capabilities, she elaborated, before adding that innovative culture and economy need time to achieve results, as well as a long-term vision and diligent work.
For his part, HE Co-founder of Microsoft Corporation and Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, said the foundation's key objective is to help children achieve their potential, affirming that he has seen numerous challenges such as epidemics, malnutrition, and others that cause child mortalities and inhibit their growth mentally and physically, amid shortages of funds allocated for their help. Malaria has claimed the lives of 600,000 children this year, and since allocating USD 30 million, the foundation has become the largest funder of malaria research in the world, Gates highlighted.
He added that the aim is to empower nations grappling with poverty by strengthening their health and education systems, enabling them to achieve self-sufficiency. Gates recalled numerous countries in Asia that have navigated similar transitional phases, noting that at the turn of the century, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam were recipients of international aid. They have since developed their education and health sectors and no longer require external financial support. Consequently, the bulk of efforts is now focused on Africa, where the foundation funds the essential tools to bolster their healthcare systems, he outlined.
Regarding artificial intelligence in the Global South, Gates pointed out that the key challenges lie in methods of applying AI, affirming that AI helps improve government and business performances and transform innovative activities, in addition to producing films, photographs, and literary works. The horizons of using AI are unlimited, he noted, indicating that the most beneficiaries are those who initiate the development of the AI field in its early phase, which literally helps create multiple innovations.
For his part, Chairman of the Dangote Foundation, Aliko Dangote, emphasized the importance of collaboration and partnership between a wide diversity of donor institutions to fund development ventures in Africa. He noted that Dangote pitches in when nations need help and now helps 17 African nations, stressing that the private sector plays a critical role in supporting development projects in Africa.